Kate

Well done @clebs. I said it’s excellent – and it is!

Congratulations, Clebs, a well-twisted tale. And thanks Alex for a prompt which produced such variety.

Burn

The day the power went off for the last time, Dad started on about the country again.

“When did this country change?” he growled. “Things never used to be like this. This is Britain, how did it get so the electric doesn’t work?”

Gemma didn’t understood when he talked like this. It was like he felt the whole island was somehow the same. G…[Read more]

A ‘critical reading course’ sounds exactly what I need, (and I’ve a couple of books on the course list) but despite several books on ‘How to’, and the Future Learn course using the James Tait Black shortlists, I’ve realised my brain doesn’t work that way. Hope you get what you want from it. I’ve several books from the Festival added to my…[Read more]

That’s brilliant, Sandra. I still have a couple of books on my TBR list from last year’s festival.

In the end I didn’t sign up for this year’s Edinburgh events as I diverted my money to doing the School — Galley Beggar Press critical reading course.

Thank you for a fascinating blog, Richard.

I don’t know that things improved when coal was nationalised. The Aberfan disaster suggests not but I don’t know the details. It seems that in general workers in all industries had to wait for health and safety legislation and that the general public sill has a long road ahead of applying pressure when…[Read more]

And now that Edinburgh’s book festival is over, I need to thank you again for the heads up – so many hours of pleasure, not to say inspiration.

Thank you both, @richardb and @katemachon; Kate, the info on your process, experience and end results was especially illuminating. Thanks so much! ✨

I was just reading up on Gresford following this and noticed one striking coincidence. The name of an MP who castigated the mine’s management during a debate in parliament following the inquiry’s mealy-mouthed conclusions:

David Grenfell…

Just come across this while procrastinating and would firstly say I found it fascinating. I know I lack analytical skills and rarely watch films, finding them lacking compared to books, so your post, Daeds, and subsequent comments, have opened my eyes to a new way of viewing – I’ll come back and re-read several times more – so thank you.

You have a calm, authoratative voice that is perfect for these blogs, Richard. I start one of these and it’s like eating something delicious: I can’t stop until it’s finished.

On the topic itself: it’s reassuring to think that we’ve come a long way since those unreconstructed days of holy capital. Then I consider the unreported disaster that has…[Read more]